Earth & Sky

Thanks to:
Dr. Joseph Wunderle
Wildlife Research Scientist
International Institute of Tropical Forestry
USDA Forest Service

Northwest Shade Coffee Campaign

Author’s Notes:

Mocha Java. French Roast. Colombian. Chocolate Raspberry. Irish Cream. Expresso. Cappucino. Coffee ice cream. There are so many ways of roasting, blending and preparing coffee beans. Yet only two species of coffee plants are used to make all those marvelous concoctions: Coffee robusta and Coffee arabica. The variety in which coffee is prepared for the palate is a testament to the popularity of this little bean, and its growing economic importance as a crop.

Coffee plants are native to Africa, found growing in the wild under the protective canopy of tropical forest trees. Ethiopians are believed to be the first humans to cultivate this plant. Today, coffee is a major crop, grown in the equatorial regions of three different continents – Asia, Africa, Central and South America. Each region has its own unique growing conditions and harvesting methods, giving their coffees a distinct regional character.

In the U.S., coffee has become the nation’s most popular beverage. One-third of the world’s coffee is consumed by Americans. Currently, about two-thirds of the world’s coffee is grown in northern Latin America and the Caribbean Islands – Mexico, Colombia, most of Central America, and many Caribbean countries – where coffee is a major player in the economy. Cultivation in the New World began in the 18th century. Although initial planting efforts were in the open sun, farmers increasingly began planting coffee in the shade of forest trees, or created a mixed community of coffee shrubs and other types of trees that provided additional income from fruit, firewood, and timber. By the early 1900s, these “shade coffee” plantations were thriving.

Most coffee is cultivated in small family farms. The traditional coffee plantation looks a lot like the forest; coffee shrubs are planted as part of the understory of other trees such as fruit trees, banana plants, and hardwood trees. The protective canopy of tall trees provides a stable local ecology, preventing soil erosion, regulating local temperatures to minimize large temperature fluctuations, and keeping the soil moist. Leaf litter from the trees is a source of natural fertile organic soil. Such plantations host a wide variety of wildlife that helps to keep pests at bay. The fruit trees and hardwood trees are also an insurance policy against coffee crop failures and unfavorable drops in market prices – products from these canopy trees include firewood, timber, and fruit, goods that can be sold to get a farm family through hard times.

These biologically-diverse plantations are an increasingly important refuge for wildlife such as migratory songbirds, as clear-cutting of forests becomes more widespread. Surveys by scientists at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, in Chiapas in southern Mexico, found as many as 180 species of birds in traditional coffee plantations. Many of the birds found in shade coffee farms are neotropical migrants, birds that winter in Central and South America but migrate each spring to breed in North America. They include colorful songbirds like warblers, tanagers, vireos, orioles, and grosbeaks, most of them birds that breed in the Northeastern U.S. and Canada, and some that bred in the Pacific Northwest. During southward migration in the fall, many migratory songbirds, about 120 species, funnel through Costa Rica and Panama.

Traditional coffee plantations hosted many of these feathery winter residents, as tracts of natural forests around them began to disappear. But now, even the traditional coffee plantations are starting to vanish. In the past 25 to 30 years, there has been an increasing push towards modernization, abandoning “shade coffee” for “sun-coffee”, where coffee is planted with little or no shade. This form of deforestation has placed millions of migratory birds and other animals in deep trouble.

The pressure to modernize came in part due to the threat of “coffee leaf rust.” This fungal disease, that had wiped out crops in India and Sri Lanka, first arrived to the New World in 1970. It was believed that planting coffee in open sun would help to suppress the fungus. (The threat from coffee leaf rust turned out to be unfounded for many regions, probably due to high elevations and long dry seasons that did not encourage its growth.)

There was another, perhaps more important, reason. Sun coffee has a larger yield, compared to shade coffee. Varieties of coffee plants more responsive to chemical fertilizer and full sun are grown in densely-planted hedgerows, sometimes with one or two species of trees for a little shade. To keep such a plantation going, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides have to be applied to the coffee plants. The lack of cover from tree canopies exposes the soil to erosion, and more nutrients are leached into the groundwater during rainy seasons. The use of potentially toxic chemical products can also be a health hazard to the farmers, who may be less inclined to wear protective gear in the warm and humid climate. And the effects are devastating to wildlife – significantly fewer birds, insects and other animals can live in an environment with such poor biological diversity.

Protecting habitat in North America is not enough for conserving our songbirds, they need to be protected in their wintering range as well. And there is something coffee-drinkers can do about it – buy shade-grown coffee. Shade coffee farms still exist. The yield may be less compared to sun coffee, and it costs a bit more, but buying shade coffee ensures that farmers get a fair wage and that habitat for wildlife is conserved.

Comments From Joseph Wunderle, U.S. Forest Service Wildlife Research Scientist, Costa Rica:
“My USFS research has focused on avian abundance, diversity, and biology in traditional shade coffee plantations. Much of the focus has been on North American migrant birds which overwinter here in the Caribbean. Without conservation efforts here on the wintering grounds, all the conservation efforts on the North American breeding grounds are for naught. Traditional shade coffee plantations (plantations of coffee bushes shaded with large overstory shade trees) are valuable as refugia for many birds (including migrants) in deforested regions of the tropics. In some cases these shade plantations are equivalent to natural tropical forests. Unfortunately, in many regions traditional shade coffee plantations are being converted into sun coffee plantations (no shade overstory just the coffee bushes), which are used by very few birds, and tend to have high pesticide and fertilizer inputs and are very susceptible to erosion. To encourage coffee farmers to retain their traditional shade plantations, a labeling program for coffee is underway (supported by some Audubon groups, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Rainforest Alliance, and some small coffee producers) so that environmentally conscientous consumers can purchase shade coffee, thereby using the marketplace to promote the the maintenance of shade canopy trees.”